Artisan Pro version history

Artisan Pro X 2022 For UXP v.1.1.0 - Minor release July 13, 2022

• Reduced Panel size. The panel can now be made even smaller by dragging the edges

• Fixed Layers not merging down properly in the Adjustments and Toning sections

Artisan Pro X 2022 For UXP v.1.0.0 - Release February 10, 2022

This UXP version of B&W Artisan Pro X 2022 (UXP) will work on any Mac computer, M1 and Intel, and of course any Windows computer without the need of starting Photoshop in Rosetta emulation mode.

Apart from completely rebuilding the panel from the ground up to comply with the necessary changes in technology platforms by Adobe, Apple, and quite possibly other computer manufacturers as well in the near future, we also implemented the following changes:

• Changed User Interface (UI). This was largely prompted by specific UI requirements imposed by Adobe but also by the need to make our layout easier to understand and more intuitive to use. All existing features are the same and work the same, albeit with some layout changes that are described in this short manual

• Increased performance. The UXP platform, especially on Macs with M1 computers, in conjunction with the complete rebuild of the panel, has increased the performance of the Artisan Pro panel noticeably to significantly depending on the type of computer.

• Zone-preview: in Micro Zones under Tools (formerly Pro Tools) or under MicroZone Adjustments, when you select a zone and hover your mouse over the button, the image will show what areas are in that specific zone. This Zone-Preview can be turned on or off.

• Auto-blending (can be turned on or off): This can be found under Tools. This is a very powerful new feature that works similarly to the auto blending with Advanced Adjustments and MicroZone Adjustments and will be demonstrated in an upcoming Youtube video. The concept: simply quick select with the lasso tool and adjust and it will blend smoothly with the rest of the image without the need for restore. Background info: the Pro tools section is my personal favorite section since it gives you far more control over adjustments than the Advanced or MicroZone adjustments, but it requires a bit more knowledge of the panel and especially on how to evaluate and use luminosity masks. Also, you need to be proficient with using the restore features. The downside however is that with the Pro tools adjustments in the old situation you can only use rectangular selections to make the Restore feature useful and effective. There are plenty of cases in which an adjustment using rectangular selections is nearly impossible and you need a random amorphous selection. Now in Pro Tools you have the choice to use restore with rectangular selections and auto blending turned off (preferred since this gives you the most precise and granular type of restore) or to turn on auto blending and then use the lasso tool selection, intersect it with a luminosity mask and it will blend automatically with the adjacent image areas. No restore is needed. Also, the auto blending can also be used to ‘stitch’ masks together in a seamless way in channel mode. Anyone who has witnessed my Advanced Masking method will know that I often mask in sections.

• Sky mask which can be found under Pro Tools. This is based on the existing PS > Select Sky feature but now enhanced with my specific masking techniques. There are 3 different sky mask generation buttons and 2 adjustment buttons to conceal/reveal more.

• Multi-Zone Adjustments can be found under Adjustments. Essentially the Zone contrast adjustment presets are meant as final tweaks in the post-processing phase and apply subtle corrections that I believe will benefit most people as it benefited me. This zone contrast adjustment feature will adjust contrasts between 3 large zones to balance the image visually to your liking. This happens by using wide-range luminosity masks in the background that target 3 zones: the shadow areas (zone 0-3), the mid-tones zone (zone 4-6), and the light zones (zones 7-10). There are 3 presets:

1. Darks will make the shadows and mid-tones darker, while at the same time increasing the highlights to balance it out.

2. Lights will increase the highlights and mid-tones brightness values and the addition of a bit of shadow will ensure the image doesn’t look faded and will still be ‘grounded’.

3. Midtones will reduce the contrast overall but in a subtle way.

B&W Artisan Pro X 2022 v.2.1.0 - Release November 14, 2021

• Fix to bypass the error introduced by PS CC 2022 v23.0.0.0. An error, among other irregularities in PS CC 2022, was fixed by Adobe with release v23.0.0.1 and resulted in a more stable release of Adobe PS CC 2022. Our fix will ensure the panel will work as advertised in the most current release of PS CC 2022. It is therefore recommended to update PS CC 2022 to v23.0.0.1 first before installing Artisan Pro X 2022.

• B&W Artisan Pro X 2022 has backward compatibility and will work in older versions of PS CC but not older than PS CC 2020 (v 21.x.x.x). It will therefore work in PS CC 2020, 2021, and 2022 but we recommend not to install PS CC 2022 v23.0.0.0 as this is an unstable Photoshop version.

• New Image Upscale / Resize Functionality to resize images, based on Photoshops built-in Preserve Details 2.0 AI model, in such a way that the image quality will be preserved at much larger sizes.

• Fixed the broken link from the Cloud button. The Cloud button now refers to a new B&W Artisan Pro X site that will serve as the primary information hub with manuals, practice files, recorded webinars, and the latest news. We’re still in the process of adding more information related to Artisan Pro and it is highly recommended to look there first in case you have questions. You can have a look here

• Includes all major updates of Artisan Pro X 2021 and previous updates. In case you're updating from older versions from before 2021 then there were significant updates in the 2021 release that are included. You can find an overview of those updates here but advanced local contrast adjustments and diagonal restore are some of the most important features for a much improved, easier, and intuitive workflow.

Artisan Pro X 2021 v2.0.0 - Release November 26, 2020

• B&W Artisan Pro X 2021 has backward compatibility Artisan Pro X 2021 is based on PS CC2021 versions and will only fully work with the latest PS CC versions (v22.x.x.x). It will also work with PS CC versions from 2019 (v20.x.x.x) and higher (v21.x.x.x) but you won’t be able to take full advantage of the new advanced Styling feature in those cases. Everything else will work without issues.

• New Styling section This new section can be used as a starting point after B&W conversion or as an endpoint or as inspiration. What it does is that based on the subject matter – architecture, landscape, or still life – the panel will automatically detect a sky or subject and then the panel will automatically apply a style to the image. Since the panel uses the new PS CC 2021 algorithm to automatically detect skies or subjects, this feature can only be used in PS CC 2021 or higher. As the panel also offers the option to load your own pre-created hard masks to generate a style, the user can use this option also in older PS versions. Obviously, the advantages of this new feature are more explicit when used with PS CC 2021.

• New Color Grading section This new section will apply a specific color scheme to your photos to give them a look that’s based on the color palettes of well-known movies, hence making them more uniform and harmonious. There are 18 presets that should be applied to color photos and generate a folder with 5 layers covering the 5 major tonal zones in an image that can easily be adjusted to your personal preferences: e.g. less or more saturation. The generated color palettes are taken from various scenes of the motion pictures and extracted to 5 dominant colors per zone and then automatically applied to a tonal zone.

• New Local Contrast Adjustment presets Contrast adjustments were always global in the previous versions of Artisan Pro X, but are now also available in the Advanced Adjustments section as local contrast adjustment presets. It works similarly to the Advanced Adjustment darkening/lightening features in that the adjustments within a random free form selection blend smoothly with the adjacent areas so no correction or masking with feathering is needed. Local contrast adjustments are ideal if more than just darkening or lightening is needed and also the contrast needs to be decreased or increased.

• More luminosity mask granularity with 1/x Luminosity mask presets 1/4 values presets for automatic creation of luminosity masks have been added to give even more accuracy and granularity to the already available 16-bit full and half values for luminosity masks.

• Added diagonal restore presets The restore features under Creating Depth are a very important feature in this panel. We’ve now added the diagonal restore with 16 new presets to make the restore even more versatile and cover smooth and accurate blending from any angle, resulting in any type of restore.

• Added Global Contrast High Key A new preset has been added to the Global Adjustments section, that works similarly to the Global Contrast Low Key preset in that it first removes the contrast and makes if ‘flatter’ and then makes it darker (existing Low Key preset) and now also lighter for a high key effect with low contrast with the new Global Contrast High Key preset. This preset is also available as a local adjustment as described in the New Local Contrast adjustment features.

• Quick Access Menu - minor new features Furthermore, the Quick Access menu now has 2 quick access buttons with Save Selection and Add noise.